Skeletal Lamping flicks across channels like a man with an itchy trigger finger who trigger finger is actually itchy, but it excels in making a brilliant kind of sense.

This Is Happening suffers no shortage of really great songs. Each track is a well-executed study in the finer points of the long form, each thumping and building, wavering and shifting in the haze of its own self-contained ecosystem.

Yves Tumor has drawn inspiration from all those moody vocals, watery guitars and blown-out mixes to create their best album yet. ... The increased connection of the internet is taking an already rich musical landscape towards its very own singularity, and when we get there it may sound a lot like Yves Tumor’s raw, surreal, multilayered tunes.

This compilation, the fourth and possibly final in their Switched On series, collects some of the various EPs, compilation tracks and tour 7″s they made between 2000 and 2005, along with some deep cuts that stretch back to the Mars Audiac Quintet era and proves the critics wrong.

This is a vital album for anyone interested in how musical traditions are disseminated, absorbed and reinvented.

Gold and Green finds its mark far more consistently than Kila, despite being a far more expansive and rambling album.

What is perhaps most impressive about Beautiful Africa is its sheer number of thrilling twists and turns.

Everything is ordered, nothing is left to chance, and with a clear path of progression. For the chilly yet soothing soundworld it conjures, it is endlessly replayable. Medicine never tasted this good.

It's to Diplo and Switch's enormous credit that the style is fully authentic, the party in full swing the whole way through.

They find Harris stepping away from the choral ambiance and glacial minimalism of the Nivhek era and retreating back to the nocturnal ebbs and crackling timbres of earlier albums such as Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill and The Man Who Died In His Boat.

An emotionally raw and thrilling pop record (because it is a pop record, despite its rock sensibilities). After a series of downs that would finish most bands, Get Tragic sounds like a new start for its creators.

The introspective narrative may not be uncharted territory, but Dido chose these waters. She is unrivalled in navigating them with her disarming and melodic harmonies. If we’re going to hell after this, let’s enjoy this atmospheric goddess while we can. Beautiful.

The wry humour on display even extends to the setlist, with 'I Tried To Leave You' being the first song of the encore. It's little touches like that which make Live In London both the perfect souvenir for those who were there on the night and also a handy introduction to one of the true living legends of the music industry.

Of its kind, Bakesale is a classic, and well worth reappraising.

It’s certainly Holter’s most accomplished and imaginative album--indeed, there hasn’t been an album this packed with ideas since tUnE-yArDs' w h o k i l l a couple of years ago.

Darker than its predecessors, the harrowing Meds is as close Placebo have come to that perfect album.

More than anything else, there's a sense of contentment and pleasure that purveys the Things Of The Past that could have been lifted from the Summer of Love itself.

Simply put, When The Cellar Children See The Light Of Day is one of the best albums of the year.

While it may be a tremendously personal album for Barwick, you can get lost in Nepenthe for not only its sheer beauty, but for its ability to evoke visual cues and tell stories with its music.

The message might be shorter this time around, but it is just as pointed and effective.

Another six-minute effort closes the album, Ducter, and like all the album’s best tracks it manages to navigate all the band’s best checkpoints of note, showcasing those spellbinding vocals and extraordinary percussion as they tread a truly staggering path. Schlagenheim will open up a whole new bottle of weird, if you let it in. It’s Troutmask Replica for a new generation, or perhaps it’s Can attempting to recreate the madness that Captain Beefheart’s enigmatic classic contained.

It’s compelling stuff; we need more musicians who are prepared to go nuts in this delightfully joyous way.

The Ascension is a far superior and more ambitious album [than 2010 album The Age Of Adz].

As Days Get Dark is a remarkable return, a new Arab Strap that updates, deepens and re-energises their sound.

Of course this is a great record. Of course this is essential listening. At this point in his career he’s still getting better, and that’s a scary proposition.

Robyn has assured her contemporaries that pop life does not end as a tweenie, that pop music can be for adults, and that adults can be Do It Yourself indie artists, so long as one thing is in place: talent.

Silence Yourself may not invent a genre. Silence Yourself may not give you something you didn’t have already. But it is so stark, so bold and delivered with such utter belief that you wonder why anyone would possibly care.

By the time the melancholic Schoenberg soprano has drifted into the ether at the end of The Abandoned Colony Collapsed My World, you’ll be ready for a repeat listen – although you’ll hear so many different elements the second time round, you’ll wonder whether the album isn’t secretly mutating whilst your back’s turned.